Beware of scams in the Copper Basin area

Citing concerns about a recent rise in Copper Basin area citizens’ requests to wire large amounts of money, Mark Romo, manager of Bank of the West in Kearny, wants to warn the public about fraudulent schemes and scams.

“I understand that in the current economy people would get excited to think that they have been given an opportunity to claim vast amounts of money,” Romo said. “But people must ask themselves if the offer makes sense…where the offer comes from and why me?”

No legitimate company, lottery or inheritance requests that you send money to get money. It’s a scam, whether it’s by phone, e-mail or regular mail, it’s still a scam Romo said.

The most frequent scam comes in the form of a check. The sender will ask you to deposit the check and then wire a certain amount of money after which you will receive what they say you have coming. The check is fraudulent and will not clear and you will lose what was sent.

Another is a request that money be sent in order to pay taxes on an inheritance or on lottery winnings. Don’t do anything until you check it out.

“We want to protect our customers and strongly suggest people do their research and become aware that these things are out there,” Romo said.

The best policy is that if it doesn’t sound right and seems too good to be true, then it’s likely not true. You’ve heard it a million times, please remember it.

Here are several links that identifies fraud and offers advice The first is to the Federal Trade Commission, they are the agency that people could report these types of fraudulent activity to.

It is a very good resource to find out about protecting yourself from being a victim of fraud FTC.gov.

The second link is to the FBI and shows a great poster that basically sums it up in regards to scams FBI.gov.